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Dave Grohl is a musical genius. Whether he’s behind the drums or front and center with a guitar and a mic, he will blow your mind away. Dave Grohl is most well known for being the drummer for the band that is arguably the king of grunge, Nirvana and for being the front man with the world famous Foo Fighters. He also formed a supergroup called Them Crooked Vultures with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin. He’s an excellent songwriter, singer, guitarist, drummer and has even been a session cat for many other bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Tenacious D, The Prodigy and many more. Let’s look at some of his accomplishments though

Dave Grohl took part in catapulting Nirvana (and along with it, Grunge) to worldwide stardom in 1991 with Nirvana’s second studio album, Nevermind. The most notable song from this album is without a doubt Smells like Teen Spirit. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t know this song? It was listed on vh1’s Top 100 songs of the 90’s as #1, which is a respectable list to be on let alone being #1.

Dave Grohl went on to make 2 more albums with Nirvana; In Utero and Incesticide. Some of the songs you might want to check out from In Utero include Heart Shaped Box and All Apologies. All Apologies definitely shows a whole different side of Nirvana that goes unseen by many people. Notable songs from Incesticide would be Sliver and Son of a Gun, both of which feature great drumming from Dave Grohl.

However, Nirvana came to a very abrupt and sad ending with the lead singer, Kurt Cobain’s, suicide. Kurt Cobain had a massive influence on Dave’s music and personality, and beyond the grave managed to inspire many amazing songs by a wide spectrum of bands including REM, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dave’s next project, the Foo Fighters. When asked how he felt when Kurt died, Dave went on to say

“My soul went dead to music. It’s like a defence mechanism. When music touches a place in you that’s so deep that it can cause pain, you build walls around it and shut yourself off. In 1994 music represented everything to me. My relationships with people. My state of mind. My well-being. So when something like Kurt dying happens, the music reminds you of everything, and you’ve just gotta turn it off. It was just too… overwhelming. But then what happens is, music becomes healing. Still, to this day, one of the reasons why I do what I’m doing is because of all of that.”

-Dave Grohl (2007 interview with NME)

The Foo Fighters are one of my favorite bands because they embody so many of the things i love about music. They have an incredible live show, they keep it old school in the recording studio (their most recent album was recorded with all old equipment, none of that new digital bullshit) so they have to play it perfectly for the recording, and they’re an awesome rock and roll band. They’ve pumped out 7 kick ass albums: (in chronological order) Foo Fighters, The Colour and the Shape, There is Nothing Left to Lose, One by One, In Your Honor (2 part album), Echoes Silence Patience and Grace, and Wasting Light.

Although I could go through all these albums and go off about how incredible they all are, i’ll give you just a taste of how badass this band is so here are some of the must listen to songs:

I tried to give you a broad spectrum across all their albums, but you should definitely look at the rest of their stuff to get a better idea of how great they are. I didn’t include my favorite song by them on this list because i’m going to tell you a little bit more about it now: Everlong off of The Colour and the Shape. Dave pours his heart into this song every time he performs it, and it was only written in about 45 minutes. It’s one of the earlier songs (off the second album) but i think it’s timeless because of how incredible of a song it is, and how it can sound however you want it to sound. When Foo Fighters played their biggest gig at Wembley Stadium in England, Dave took a little break from the show to step out on this long platform to serenade 86,000 people.

What a work of art. A 6 minute long crescendo leaving everyone, including myself, in awe. One of the best performances I’ve ever seen. At this same show, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin were featured to play Rock & Roll and Ramble On.

Well that’s about it, just ask me if you want to know more about any of these bands! I’d love to talk about it.

Although many of you may not know who he is, I feel as though Jack White is one of the best musicians of today and here’s why. He is most well known for being the front man in the popular American Alt. Rock band The White Stripes. He’s also had various other projects such as being the front man for The Raconteurs and being the drummer for the supergroup The Dead Weather. He also wrote 5 songs for the soundtrack of Cold Mountain, including Wayfaring Stranger, but we’ll get to that later. All of his bands explore a huge range of genres, which only goes to show how capable he is. He’s definitely a unique musician with a feel of southern rock, blues, and alternative rock. Enough background, let’s dive into his first project; The White Stripes.

I could go on and on about the White Stripes first three albums, but I’m sure you all aren’t very interested in that so I’m going to focus on one big hit they had on each album starting with the one that brought them to fame. The White Stripes didn’t have any huge success until their fourth album: Elephant. Elephant marked the band’s major label debut as their first UK chart-topping album. Although there are other excellent tracks on this album, it’s hard for anything else to get in the way of this huge, Grammy winning hit, Seven Nation Army. So if you want to get a good idea of how powerful the White Stripes’ sound is I’d definitely check out this track.